This isn’t the best time to own industrial property in St. Louis, at least according to CB Richard Ellis.

Of course, this doesn’t really set industrial landlords in St. Louis apart from industrial property owners across the Midwest. It’s really not the best time to own industrial buildings just about anywhere these days.

CB Richard Ellis released its latest St. Louis industrial market report, covering the third quarter of this year, and found some fairly gloomy statistics. Well, they’re gloomy for landlords, not necessarily for tenants looking to find new industrial space.

The CBRE report found that lease rates for industrial space in St. Louis fell in the third quarter of this year. At the same time, the vacancy rate in the industrial sector stood at 15.4 percent in the quarter. That figure, unfortunately, is up from last year.

Overall, the St. Louis industrial market saw negative absorption of about 206,000 square feet during the third quarter. You can blame most of this to the departures of Smurfit Stone and HDA from St. Louis’ North County submarket.